I rolled without aim or care, ending up at the High Court. One guy with a machine gun smiled and helped me with directions, then the next set, the guy said something incomprehensible pointed his finger and said GO! I respected his authority. Don't want to screw around with angry army personnel.
The tourist office said to come back at 12, so I ended up in the rock garden to kill some time. There were loads of school kids having a great time. I said hello to an entire class, or rather they did to me as they filled past. I chatted to one teacher who was very kind. She quizzed me but I forgot to quiz her back.
It's laid out in a maze, a huge open plaza at the end with swings. I walked around, couldn't find the exit, panicked, asked, and turns out you have to back track. I'd already spent an hour and had 30 to get to the tourist office, so at a panicked clip, with no idea of I was quite going the right way in the maze, it was a huge relic to get back to the bike parking area. I think mine was the only one locked up.
After going through another baggage scanner, and leaving my bike repair kit behind for the tour, we went over a foot bridge and inside where there were more army guys, but unarmed. Poor things must be really bored.
It was the work of Le Corbusier, moderated by Nehru demands. For example, the tallest building is only about 5 levels. With all the fighting, wars etc, Nehru did not want to create a target.
Chandigarh is a planned city. La Hore was lost to Pakistan, so Punjab in India needed a capitol. Turns out it is Haryanas capitol as well.
Le Corbusier symbol is the corbeau, hence his name, ie a crow, in French. Because the bird is intelligent (and modest?). So on the door of parliament, there is a crow, and a chicken, the symbol of France.
The Hans of peace is the shadow of a dive and weighs 50 tonnes. It turns with the wind.
I ended up chatting to 2 French girls who are in exchange to study textiles. Awesome place to do it. So many amazing fabrics.
Checked out my route for tomorrow. Met up with John and Manus's families for dinner at a BBQ grill, slightly weird but I guess it's something different. I got the message a bit late, so got there a bit late. Met and charged to Andy, Monika, her sister Sona plus her husband Navdeep, and the their Mammy mum/ grand mum. I asked for name in Hindi. She says do you speak Hindi? I say no!
Monika is handling all the details and not getting upset. Navdeep is worried about me going up SH9 due to trucks and damage from the extreme monsoon this year. He says to go on the NH5. Sona is the head of a department and sometimes goes into the amazing 1960s brutalist Admin building in town.
I wake up at 3am and screen shot the road. It is a complete horror main road. I don't sleep well.
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